Decorate Your Garden With a Hen (Chickens)

Member Name: aefra

Product:	Chickens
Date:	12/02/02 (775 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Decorative, Amusing, Inexpensive

Disadvantages: Stones on the Lawn

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Thelma had "escaped" from the battery where my best friend worked part time collecting eggs. She knew how I felt about the whole thing, but she did let them run around when no-one was watching. Wyn handed me a nearly bald, almost unconcious bird with toes curled over and claws so long that she could not stand, let alone walk. There was little chance of survival, but we wanted to give her a chance. I brought her home, named her Thelma, and put her in a small hutch hastily found by Wyn. With no knowledge of hens, all I could do was nurse her. I dropped water into her poor clipped beak , kept her clean and talked to her. She started to eat a little layers mash and a few days later I placed her on the lawn. By this time, not standing on wire, her toes had uncurled. She struggled over to the drain and there spent her days. I think she was agraphobic. All that space was too much. Within a few weeks she was scratching for worms and her golden feathers were growing nicely. Then came the big event. Thelma laid an egg!!

That egg was photographed with an entire reel of film. I still have the photos of Thelma's first egg. It was set in an eggcup decorated with tinsel: it was placed on the lawn in front of Thelma; laid in state on a flower bed as part of a still life etc. etc. Thelma's first egg was then boiled and eaten with all due ceremony. Never was there a finer tasting egg.

This was the start of years of fun and learning. Over the years Thelma was joined by other "battery rescue jobs". There was Edna whose flight feathers had to be lightly trimmed once she recovered as she could fly the height of the first floor windows,my favourite of all time, Little Weeny, whose recovery was almost a miracle and Honeybun among others.

Hens make good pets. They really do. Maybe mine were "imprinted" since they were only semi-concious when I had them and I was the first being that they saw with clear eyes. For

all that, they are easy to befriend. They followed me around the garden and it was not easy hanging out the washing with several large birds jostling each other round my feet. They also had a tendency to wander round the inside of the house if I wasn`t watchful and then jump on the lap of my seated husband.

Part of their charm to me is that hens are definitely dim. Honeybun once ran to me straight across the duckweed covering the pond. I fished her out of 4' of water and she tried to do the same the following day. One summer morning as we sat at breakfast looking out over the garden, Edna noticed a blackbird pulling a juicy worm out of the lawn. She wandered over and stood above and behind the blackbird, straddling it with what would have looked like tree trunks of legs to the smaller bird. The wild bird successfully pulled the worm out and turned to fly away-- -to face the chest and legs of a curious hen. Both birds leapt backwards in noisy fright and the worm escaped. We were choking on our toast by that time.

Hens are easy to keep. They need a house which can be closed off securely at night from foxes. This doubles as a nesting place for their eggs. Straw or shavings as bedding and nesting material is all that is required. Although my hens took much of their feed from the garden (which is possibly why free range eggs taste so good), I scattered layers pellets for them. The mash can get smelly if left uneaten and then become damp. If they are confined to a pen they will need grit for digestion and hard shells to their eggs. I managed to buy several packets of out- of -date reddybrek one winter. Such joy listening to them cooing away as they tucked into steaming porridge on an icy morning. Particularly amusing as I put some out for our german shepherds and they all lined up together outside the back door. From the health point of view potato peelings are not a good idea. Water must always be available.

Will they wreck you
r garden? I found not. They "weeded" for me by scratching between the shrubs; although the stones they threw up didn't help the edges of the lawn or, come to that, the lawnmower blade. Should they be kept in a pen it would be considerate to have a small part of it over soil. Hens need to scratch, just as horses need to graze and pigs to root.

Battery-rescue hens are prolific layers. I had one which would at times lay 9 days out 10. Most hens lay for a few days, rest, then lay again. As their feathers start to moult, laying will cease until they are once more fully feathered. Economically, a few pet hens will not be producing cheaper eggs. I regarded each egg as a gift, and the flavour beats anything you buy in the supermarket. All those worms! I preferred not to think of that. :-)

Introducing a new bird to the flock has to be supervised. Those sweet natured pets of ours could be really spiteful to a newcomer for a while. With attention to their needs, they will live happily for several years. Little Weeny died in her sleep at approximately 8 years old.

Chickens are clean, easily handled, great fun to watch, endearing and inexpensive to keep. Added to all this is the daily gift they present you with.

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